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Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S6W-40057

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 22 August 2025
Current Status: Answer expected on 19 September 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has made an assessment of the cost to remove asbestos from 177 police stations in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-39553

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 25 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 22 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) paramedics are currently working in Scotland, (b) newly qualified paramedics entered the NHS in each of the last five years and (c) individuals are currently in training to become paramedics.

Number of paramedics currently working in Scotland:

2,156.6 WTE

Number of Newly Qualified Paramedics who entered the NHS (in Scotland) in each of the last five years:

2020-21 = 24

2021-22 = 58

2022-23 = 47

2023-24 = 179

2024-25 = 181

You should note that the Scottish Ambulance Service received the first applications from Newly Qualified Paramedics with Scottish qualifications in April 2023. The numbers above include NQP applicants from across the UK.

Individuals are currently in training to become paramedics:

985

Question reference: S6W-39551

Asked by: Jamie Greene, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 25 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Richard Lochhead on 22 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure that businesses, particularly small and medium-sized businesses, are equipped and supported to implement artificial intelligence into their work.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting businesses, including SMEs, to harness the benefits of artificial intelligence (AI). As part of the Programme for Government, we have committed to launching AI Scotland, our national transformation programme, which is founded on a strong partnership between business, academia, public agencies, and government. This programme is designed to accelerate AI adoption across sectors and ensure access to AI tools and expertise.

To support SMEs specifically we are also delivering on:

The AI Playbook, which is being delivered by the AI Alliance and has been updated to better serve business audiences, offering a one-stop-shop for practical guidance, case studies, and resources tailored to the needs of SMEs.
The Scottish AI Alliance has hosted a series of workshops with SMEs to understand their challenges and opportunities in adopting AI. Insights from these sessions are informing future support mechanisms.
We are working with a senior governance group, which includes business leaders, to ensure that the AI Scotland programme remains responsive to the needs of industry and delivers meaningful impact for businesses of all sizes.

Further support is also being explored through enterprise agencies and innovation centres to ensure that SMEs can access the skills, infrastructure, and funding needed to integrate AI into their operations.

Question reference: S6W-39565

Asked by: Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, Alba Party
Date lodged: Monday, 28 July 2025
Current Status: Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 22 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many train stations operated by ScotRail in Scotland are not step-free, and what action it is taking to ensure better accessibility to all train stations.

Question reference: S6W-39769

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 22 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what share of recorded patient falls occurred in NHS facilities known to be in poor condition or scheduled for replacement.

The Scottish Government does not hold the information on the reasons for patient falls. Each NHS board is responsible for recording, assessing and investigating (if necessary), the reason for a patient fall. This investigation would include whether the condition of the NHS facilities was a factor.

The Scottish Patient Safety Programme (SPSP), hosted by Healthcare Improvement Scotland, provides ongoing practical improvement support to Boards. Since 2021, SPSP has delivered a programme to reduce the rate of inpatient falls. The most recent data from this work (see report published December 2024) demonstrates that the national median rate of inpatient falls in acute hospitals had sustained a decrease of 9% (when compared to baseline data beginning in 2021). This programme of work will continue to support improvement in the years ahead.

Question reference: S6W-39812

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 22 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many people resident in Scotland have received NHS treatment in the rest of the UK in each year since 2021.

The following table shows the total number of admissions across England, Wales and Northern Ireland for patients normally residing in Scotland, for each financial year since 2021 where complete data is available. Consideration should be given to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic when interpreting these data.

The total admissions includes emergency and elective admission episodes. Admissions do not represent the number of patients, as a person may have more than one admission within the period. The figures have been rounded to the nearest 5.

Financial year	Total Admissions
21-22	5,110
22-23	5,380
23-24	5,610

Question reference: S6W-39813

Asked by: Tim Eagle, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 22 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many Significant Adverse Event Reviews have been commissioned for a Category I adverse event in each year since 2021, broken down by NHS board.

The data requested is gathered by Healthcare Improvement Scotland and is provided in the following table.

Category 1 SAERs commissioned from Jan 2021 - Jun 2025
Board	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
NHS 24	< 5	8	< 5	10	< 5
NHS Ayrshire & Arran	46	49	46	56	34
NHS Borders	12	18	10	15	12
NHS Dumfries & Galloway	47	47	40	42	25
NHS Fife	46	68	66	59	33
NHS Forth Valley	18	15	28	19	12
NHS Grampian	23	21	21	31	20
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde	244	272	292	317	117
NHS Highland	20	22	26	29	20
NHS Lanarkshire	50	84	107	99	64
NHS Lothian	71	91	80	94	20
NHS National Waiting Times Centre	27	18	21	12	< 5
NHS Orkney	< 5	6	8	< 5	< 5
NHS Shetland	< 5 in each year
NHS Tayside	24	22	36	40	16
NHS Western Isles	< 5 in each year
Scottish Ambulance Service	62	46	64	22	7
State Hospital	< 5 in each year
Total	700	788	852	857	389

Notes

1.The data is sourced from Healthcare Improvement Scotland’s (HIS) Significant Adverse Event Review National Notification System.

2.The data provided for 2025 is for the period from January to June 2025 only.

3.Cases where the volume is less than 5 are withheld to comply with HIS' disclosure control protocols.

4.HIS published the revised ‘Learning from adverse events through reporting and review: A national framework for Scotland’ in February 2025. Each NHS board is responsible for applying the National Framework in the context of its own local incident reporting systems and governance processes. Therefore, there remains some variation in how the National Framework is applied in practice and it is not possible to compare data on a like-for-like basis across NHS boards.

5.The notification data refers to the commissioning of SAERs for category 1 events, and not the total number of category 1 events.

Question reference: S6W-39702

Asked by: Liam McArthur, MSP for Orkney Islands, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 22 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many offences involving air weapons were recorded between (a) 2009 and 2016 and (b) 2017 and 2024.

The following table shows the number of offences involving the alleged use of an air weapon (where identified) between 2009-10 and 2021-22. This has been split into two time periods, 2009-10 to 2014-15 and 2015-16 to 2021-22. The reason for this specific split is the introduction of an improved methodology for collating these statistics from 2015-16 onwards. As such the two time periods are not directly comparable as the earlier one is likely to contain a small degree of underestimation.. Further information on the change in methodology and the presentation of data by single years is available at Recorded Crimes and Offences Involving Firearms, Scotland, 2020-21 and 2021-22 - gov.scot.

The latest Crimes and offences involving a firearm Official Statistics relate to 2021-22. Future updates will follow the conclusion of a further review by analysts from Scottish Government and Police Scotland into the methodology for producing this data. Unlike other crime-based official statistics, the current approach relies on the manual review of crime records to identify relevant cases, which is resource intensive and requires significant time to complete. An update on the outcome of this work is planned for early Autumn, and users can register for this through the SCOTSTAT network (https://www.gov.scot/publications/scotstat-register-guidance/)

Crimes involving the alleged use of an air weapon 2009-10 to 2021-22

Period	Number of crimes
2009-10 to 2014-15	1,394
2015-16 to 2021-22	783

Source: Recorded Crimes and Offences involving Firearms, Scotland

Question reference: S6W-39848

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 22 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what induction is available specifically to African workers coming to work within the NHS and social care sector.

The Code of Practice for the International Recruitment of Health and Social Care Personnel in Scotland promotes high standards of practice in the ethical recruitment of all international staff and all health and social employers must adhere to the Code.

It provides employers of health and social care personnel with guiding principles that should be adhered to when undertaking international recruitment and states that internationally recruited staff have the same legal rights and responsibilities as domestic staff in terms of employment and conditions of work. This means high standards of induction and support is provided equal to all other employees. It must include cultural and pastoral support to help individuals settle into work and life in Scotland regardless of country of origin.

The code can be accessed on the Scottish Government website at Scottish Code of Practice for Ethical Recruitment of Health and Social Care Personnel

Question reference: S6W-39720

Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 04 August 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 22 August 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the work that it is doing to determine whether it will introduce a standalone offence of non-fatal strangulation.

As outlined in my letter to the Criminal Justice Committee on 22 July 2025, I remain committed to giving the proposal to introduce a standalone offence of non-fatal strangulation serious consideration. As part of that process our Programme for Government detailed that we will carry out a comprehensive assessment of the relevant law in order to determine next steps. I will keep Parliament updated as this work progresses.